You won’t need to know how to drive to solve this puzzle, but it will require a certain amount of brain power.
Puzzles and brainteasers aren’t just entertaining. They’re a great way to keep your mind active, improving overall cognitive function, memory and problem-solving skills.
This car park-themed puzzle is aimed at kids, but it turns out adults have been struggling to work out the answer to. The puzzle was recently posted to X by @quiz_riddles, who shared quizzes and riddles daily on the platform.
The puzzle, called A Lot Of Thought, asks: “What is the number of the parking space containing the car?” The image shows six parking spaces. They are each numbered – 16, 06, 68, 88, [X] and 98.” So puzzlers need to work out the number which is supposed to be between 88 and 98.
The question was previously used in an admission test for a primary school in Hong Kong, and is intended to be solved by six-year-olds in 20 seconds. Although it’s meant for kids, it doesn’t mean adults haven’t struggled to work it out.
You might spend quite a bit of time trying to work out the answer, but it’s actually quite straight forward and doesn’t require any tricks. You don’t need to know algebra or any specific sequences. The trick to answering this riddle is doing one thing – turning it upside down.
When looking at it upside down, which might be more obvious to kids, it’s clear that the numbers now say 86, [X], 88, 89, 90, 91. This makes it fairly obvious that the space where the car is parked needs to be 87.
Many people have been confused by the puzzle, which has been shared multiple times online. While some were able to correctly guess 87, others thought the answer was 78, 75, or even 45.
The puzzle is thought to have been invented by British puzzle creator David Bodycombe, who can’t believe the puzzle has been so widespread. According to the Guardian, he came up with the idea while in a car park in Portugal over two decades ago.
Adults tend to overthink the question, and therefore don’t try to look at it upside down, but instead try to work it out using math. Meanwhile, children, who have a tendency to look at things from various angles, are able to answer it straight away.
Did you manage to answer it? Let us know in the comment section below.
At Reach and across our entities we and our partners use information collected through cookies and other identifiers from your device to improve experience on our site, analyse how it is used and to show personalised advertising. You can opt out of the sale or sharing of your data, at any time clicking the “Do Not Sell or Share my Data” button at the bottom of the webpage. Please note that your preferences are browser specific. Use of our website and any of our services represents your acceptance of the use of cookies and consent to the practices described in our Privacy Notice and Cookie Notice.
